Essential Clementi
"Clementi is a charlatan," wrote Mozart, who engaged in a "piano duel" with the Italian in 1781 (the Emperor, diplomatically, declared it a draw). In more than 100 sonatas, Clementi became an early pioneer of piano style – even if his music was later satirised by the likes of Satie in his 'Sonata bureaucratique'.
Read more…Born in Rome four years before Mozart (in 1752), Clementi spent much of his life in England, where he died five years after Beethoven (in 1832). In a long life, his activities extended far beyond composition: he branched out into music publishing, becoming the sole agent for Beethoven's music in London, manufactured pianos and was a founder of what became the Royal Philharmonic Society. Although he wrote a piano concerto and a number of symphonies, his keyboard sonatas were his most influential music. We find Mozart incorporating Clementi's techniques into his later sonatas – despite the supposed rivalry between them – and Beethoven held Clementi's sonatas in the highest regard. Czerny made his pupil Liszt study the sonatas, and Chopin made all his students play them. Nearly every piano stool will contain an ancient, dog-eared volume of Clementi's sonatas, within which may be found an ideal balance between technical challenge and winning lyricism, and an emotional range from galant pleasantries to grand Romantic passion.